MALAYSIA will be 65 this year, and so will eight per cent of Malaysians in August. Or more accurately, come Aug 31, some eight per cent of Malaysians will be 65 years old and older. Eight per cent isn't a small number for a nation of 34 million.
Alarmingly, the elderly are not only ageing, but appear to be the fastest growing slice of Malaysia's demography.
Not those who are 14 and below. Not, too, those who are 15 and above. This should send a chill down the spine of policymakers. Why? Because Malaysia isn't as prepared as it should be.
Perhaps we are great at tweaking, but not so big in deep thinking. Such old habits will do us no good when it comes to governing a fast-ageing nation.
If Malaysia wants to avoid an "agequake", it needs a serious shake-up in thinking about how to govern an ageing nation.
Like it or not, ageing will shape the future of Malaysia. It is time for those who govern the country, and the policymakers who help them, took a holistic approach to ageing.
Here is how. Ageing is a tale of two futures. One is about the elderly — the 65 and above. Another is about those who are 64 years old and below. Governing an ageing nation means shaping these two futures.
Start with the elderly. As hinted by MyAgeing senior research officer Chai Sen Tyng of Universiti Putra Malaysia to this newspaper yesterday, we are fond of taking an aged idea and tweaking it to death.
Like the Bantuan Orang Tua, or loosely translated as "Aid to the Old", a 50-year-old programme that has had its benefits squeezed out of its every pore.
Looking at the bigger picture would suggest something with a more universal reach like a national health insurance (NHI) scheme.
The Centre, a Malaysian think tank, is right, Malaysia's healthcare story is all about private medical insurance. And that, too, a coverage of only 41 per cent of Malaysians.
This means more than half of the population is depending on an already overburdened public healthcare system. Here, waiting time has remained an issue for the longest time.
The public healthcare system, which is almost entirely funded by tax money, just won't do. Not for a fast-ageing nation.
The Centre suggests that Malaysia opt for the NHI, which is a hybrid model that runs on tax funds and means-tested premiums contributed by Malaysians into a government-run health insurance programme. Japan and Taiwan are two countries that are doing well with NHI.
Now for the young. The young, too, will age. Unlike those aged 65 and above, the young have a choice: to age gracefully or otherwise.
Obviously, the government can't make the choice for them. Nor should it try.
What it can do, though, is to educate them of the choices and their consequences. And make the environment available through its service delivery for them to make the choice.
The choice must still be theirs. From villages to towns to cities, all must be wellness-centric.
As they say, prevention is better than cure. Ageing cannot be prevented. Neither can death.
But ill-health can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle. The government's policies and service delivery must make it easy for the young to choose such a lifestyle. Thus is the future of an ageing nation shaped.